These hired lackeys had then shamefully gone on to describe the various official inquiries into the Climategate emails scandal as "whitewashes", apparently citing them as evidence that the dangers of global warming had been "grossly exaggerated".

While the press can serve a mitigating role -- calling out false claims and exposing whitewashes -- a large and continually growing proportion of voters no longer follows the mainstream media, and many that do no longer trust what they see.